Sergio Perez: “I think we can be competitive tomorrow”

Sergio Perez missed out on joining Sahara Force India team-mate Nico Hülkenberg into the final part of qualifying at Silverstone by just 0.105 seconds, but was happy with the outcome and the free choice of starting tyre that comes with it.

The Mexican racer initially qualified eleventh, but will move up one place on the grid when Sebastian Vettel takes his gearbox penalty, and remains confident that he can chose a strategy on race day that will enable him to return to the points after losing a top ten finish in Austria last weekend with a late race brake issue.

“The changes we made to the car after final practice helped us take a step in the right direction,” said Perez. “Missing out on Q3 was not ideal, especially by such a small margin, but I am confident we can make good progress in the race.

“We have the advantage of being the first car with a free choice of tyres and, if I can make a good start, we should be able to fight for some points. Overtaking is quite tricky here so the first few laps are very important and you need to get good track position.

“Degradation is high, but we have done a lot of work to manage it and we have a good understanding of the tyres, so I think we can be competitive tomorrow.”